I send a semi-daily email delivering insights into leadership in exponential times. For entrepreneurs, corporate irritants and change makers. Raw, unfiltered and opinionated. It is called The Heretic and here is the dispatch from 2016-04-10:

Sign up below ↓

THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT DELEGATING

On your journey from someone who is doing everything (the jack-of-all-trades entrepreneur working out of her garage) to a leader, one of the most important things you need to learn, is to delegate.

For many this is hard — in two ways:

First, the notion that you give up control over how things are done (and later, as your organization grows, which things are done) is a tough nut to swallow. You get increasingly removed from the day-to-day of your business. You need to trust people that they do their job well. You need to be okay that people do things differently than you.

Secondly, the act of delegating (well) is something which needs thought and skill. One of Steve Jobs’ lieutenants said about Steve:

“Steve was the best delegator I ever met. He was so clear about what he wanted that it gave you great freedom.”

This single sentence sums up what great delegation is all about: Becoming incredibly clear about the goals, the ability to clearly communicate and creating the space for the team to execute.

Becoming not just a good but a great delegator holds the key to successful scaling your business.